The Cumbria COVID-19 Business and Economic Response and Recovery Group (BERRG) has been established to assess the implications of the coronavirus pandemic on Cumbria’s economy and to ensure that appropriate actions are put in place to support Cumbria’s businesses now and in the months to come.

In order to do this they need to hear from businesses, charities and other organisations about the type and scale of impacts they are experiencing.  They have therefore created a short survey for businesses to complete. We estimate it should take no more than 10 – 15 minutes to complete and would be grateful if some of our family business community members would help them by completing it.

Survey Link: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/CumbriaCV19W1

The survey will remain open until Friday 15th May 2020.

A note about confidentiality – Cumbria LEP is leading this research on behalf of BERRG.  Although the survey is asking for some commercially sensitive data, is vital to fully understand the impact and to provide appropriate support.  Please be assured that all responses will be anonymised, no findings will be published or shared which could identify individual businesses and no information will be used other than for the stated purpose.  For details of Cumbria LEP’s privacy policy click here.

BERRG has over 40 members (including our founder, Sue Howorth)  from across Cumbria’s business, public and voluntary sectors, with meetings held via teleconference at least twice weekly. Regular electronic communication will also take place to make sure that there is real time information over the coming weeks and months.

BERRG has committed to undertake the following:

• Assess the economic implications for Cumbria and ensure that accurate and up to date intelligence is collected and disseminated as appropriate
• Identify the effectiveness of national and local mitigation activity in maintaining economic and business activity and identify any further mitigation actions
• Develop clear and consistent communication channels to ensure that all businesses are aware of the support available to them
• Support businesses to continue trading and to manage liquidity during the emergency
• Develop an economic recovery strategy, at the appropriate point.

Cumbria Local Enterprise’s Chief Executive and Chair of BERRG, Jo Lappin, said: “These are clearly unprecedented times and BERRG is focused on the economic aspects of the Local Resilience Forum’s overall strategic aim, which is to protect life; to minimise the impact of the outbreak on health, society and the economy; and to maintain public trust and confidence. It is clear already that a number of our businesses are being seriously affected and we need to do everything we can to ensure that they access all of the support currently available to them and to also identify what extra support is needed.

“BERRG recognises that this is a serious issue. However, we want to try and make sure that we have a pragmatic and proportionate response to control and mitigation measures in order to reduce the impact on our businesses and economy.”